The Selma Times-Journal

All football fans long to be closer to the action.

The Dallas-Wilcox Bama Club hopes that is what it will be able to provide all those attending its annual spring banquet April 28.

The guest speaker for the event will be Todd Alles, director of football operations for the University of Alabama.

“He works pretty closely along with Coach (Nick) Saban and handles a lot of the day-to-day activities,” Bama Club board member William Perkins said. “We wanted to do that, as opposed to getting a coach, who could tell us about the players and the recruiting process and basically some of the stuff we’ve already read in the newspaper. (Alles) can go into what Coach Saban does day in and day out and tell us what his plan is to build the program back to where we want it to be.”

The event will also help prospective students at the university by awarding them scholarships.

Last year, the club granted $1,000 scholarships to seven high school seniors in Dallas and Wilcox counties, and Perkins said the goal is to match that this year.

In the past 10 years, the Bama Club has gone from awarding one or two scholarships to where it is today. Membership is open to alumni and any supporters of the school.

“Support from the Alabama fans in the area has been incredible,” Perkins said. “The money from the Bama Club has been a deciding factor for a lot of kids on whether or not they would go to the school.”

The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Performing Arts Center on Selma Ave. Cost is $30 per person, which includes the meeting and annual membership dues, and all proceeds go toward the club’s scholarship fund.